Voice-overs and movie dubbing with actress Victoria Sturm

I had the chance to interview German actress Victoria Sturm who is possibly even more well-known her for voice acting talents in many films, TV shows and video games.

”You can do your own stuff, but actually, you have to come as near as possible to the original performance.”

NSR

Hi, Victoria. So how did you get into acting? And more particularly, how did you get into voice acting?

Victoria Sturm

How did I get into acting? It’s a very strange way because my father was an actor. I grew up in East Germany and there were only three possibilities to leave the country correctly. When you have a profession with sports or you are a singer, opera or something like that. Yeah. Art, sport and sciences. OK, and that I chose art and I wanted to study first opera singing, and then I started to learn it and I decided, “no, it’s not so my kind of thing” and then the only thing I knew was acting but I only could leave the country once I’d finished my studies. And then before I can go to the acting university, the wall came down and everything changed. So, I made my education privately and started to work.

NSR

What was your big break in terms of voice acting?

Victoria Sturm

I started voice acting only as an additional way to get money. I never thought that it would become the main part. And the big thing was, I think, Desperate Housewives.

NSR

Ok.

Victoria Sturm

When I started with this show, it was a main part. And yeah, I got it.

NSR

So, why do you think voice acting and dubbing is still so vibrant in many European countries, particularly Germany or France?

Victoria Sturm

France I don’t know. In Germany, it has a tradition. It started actually after the Second World War because the Americans wanted to change people’s minds after the Nazis and change the culture. And so they started to sell licences to adapt their films and translate their films so that the Germans can watch American movies. And so dubbing was starting and yeah, and everything was dubbed.

NSR

What kind of preparation do you go through when you’re setting out to rerecord somebody’s voice in a different language?

Victoria Sturm

Actually, every morning I eat five pieces of ginger. No… [laughs] Just kidding. No, actually nothing. If it is a blockbuster then I watch it upfront. It’s necessary because the work is more specific and the TV stuff is so, so quick. You come into the studio and the director tells you the story and the particular scene, and then “let’s go”.

NSR

Is it like a really long process? Are there lots of laborious steps involved?

Victoria Sturm

To do a dubbing session actually or for me as a voice actor?

NSR

Both, in terms of how long does it take to do a recording? And then I was going to come on to ask about your preparation.

Victoria Sturm

Recording for a movie is five days. And for a part in a series, it depends on how many words are spoken. Actually, it is two to four days.

NSR

So what’s your biggest guide? What’s your biggest influence? Is it the character on the page or the performance that’s already being committed to the screen? Is there any kind of scope for expansion in terms of your performance?

Victoria Sturm

The most important thing is the performance. You can change the words. Yeah, you have a little range. You can do your own stuff, but actually, you have to come as near as possible to the original performance.

NSR

How do you get the words to match exactly the mouth movements, particularly when you’re translating a role for German audiences where the words are typically so much longer than in English?

Victoria Sturm

[Laughs] Yeah, if you cut every “y’know?” Then you have the time because every sentence starts with “y’know?” And every sentence ends with “y’know?” and if you translate every “you know”, you get crazy in German. And no, [laughs], for me as a voice actor, I have nothing to do with the mouth matching because I get the script and before the script is done by a dubbing scriptwriter and it’s his or her thing to change the words, to do it totally in sync.

NSR

Ok, so you’re recognized here as the go-to voice for several well-known actors. How did that come about? Is it the film stars that choose you and say, “Oh, I want her to be my voice for Germany”?

Victoria Sturm

No… Because I think many of them don’t know what is dubbing [laughs]. They never know that there is a person who does their voice in a foreign language. No, actually, it’s the job of the German dubbing director and the person who works for a network or Netflix. And they choose between three or four voices, who has the most matching voice to this actor.

NSR

Does it ever get strange when you’re recognized for your voice when you’re out and about in daily life?

Victoria Sturm

No, because the people are confused but they don’t know why. For instance, if you are sitting in the cab and you say something i.e. Where you want to go and the cab driver is looking in this mirror and he see this face. He hears the voice and for him, it’s strange because he thinks “Do I think I know this person”? No, but the total recognition is not there.

NSR

So, it’s not something you can abuse. You can’t phone up the tax office with a complaint and say, you’ve got it wrong.

Victoria Sturm

It would be great but no. Unfortunately, no.

NSR

Fair enough. What is the best film you’ve ever seen where you thought, “Wow, that recording was faultless”?

Victoria Sturm

I don’t know a particular film. The last film I saw, which was very well dubbed, is Soul, the Pixar movie. And there are a lot of films, especially the big blockbuster things that are very well dubbed.

NSR

Is there any actor or actress you particularly liked to be the voice for?

Victoria Sturm

No, no, I don’t think so, because my ladies, they are such a big range, from comedy to crime to, I don’t know, big cinema movies. They do everything and I can do everything because of them.

NSR

What’s the biggest difference between dubbing for movies as opposed to dubbing for video games? Particularly when many videogame characters nowadays, like in the Resident Evil franchise will go on to appear in movies as well?

Victoria Sturm

Yeah. For movies, you have to act. And for video games, you mostly have to scream “OK, just stop! Stop. No! Yes! Go on!” [laughs] I don’t know.

NSR

So, given the explosion of new studios like Netflix, which are very keen to serve a world audience and have their shows in multi-lingual formats, have you seen voice acting change. Has it got more important? Do people value it more?

Victoria Sturm

Yeah, I think so because of Netflix and Amazon and Apple and Disney and so on. The foreign countries recognize that they can sell their products a lot better if they are adapted in some countries. And so a) they recognize dubbing and b), they also learned that it is important to do good quality in dubbing because the audience is not so stupid. I think when Netflix was starting, they thought – it doesn’t matter – but the people are not so stupid. They switch off if the dubbing is shit.

They hired people here to control the final dubbing production and so it became better and better. There are shows and films on Netflix I feel ashamed for and for my dubbing colleagues because it is so awful.

NSR

Do you think that there is margin for them to go back and re-record them? Or have the audiences got used to the bad dubbing?

Victoria Sturm

No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that Netflix will re-dub something. I remember only once something was re-dubbed because I think it was on Amazon. It was a show they dubbed and they wanted to sell it to a German network, and the network station watched it and said, “No way – you have to do it again because. this can not go on air on our station”. And they did it again – the whole show.

NSR

I mean, you get these curious stories like…, I always remember this story about Kenneth Branagh’s first film, Henry V. And obviously, it’s a film about the British beating the French. And yet Gerard Depardieu said he would pay for the film’s distribution on the sole pretext that he could dub the voice of Henry V.

Have you ever had anything like that happen in your working life?

Victoria Sturm

No. Do you know the movie Being George Clooney?

NSR

Being George Clooney? No, I don’t.

Victoria Sturm

There is a movie called Being George Clooney and it’s a documentary about dubbing actors all over the world. They interview the Brazilian guy, the Turkish guy, the Indian guy, the German, French, Italian guys. And it is so funny to watch because the thing they had in common is they are proud to be a little part of the Clooney movies. And on the other side, they are totally different because the Italian one thinks he is George Clooney.

Sure. “So, George and I on the Lake of Como, you know…” And the Turkish guy says “yeah, they called me and they offered me to adapt George Clooney. And they offered me the money and it was so low that I told them, OK. It’s a cool thing to dub George Clooney. You don’t have to pay me because I’m a well-known actor and I earn such a lot of money.” And since then, he does it for free.

NSR

[Laughs]

Victoria Sturm

Yeah. And it’s very funny. And the Indian actor is a very, very small little guy. Nothing to do with George Clooney. And the Brazilian one is a doctor who’s actually a surgeon in a hospital and only goes to a studio and dub George Clooney. And after that, he’s a doctor again.

NSR

It must be so tempting to switch on the George Clooney while you’re in the middle of an operation. I’d love to see that.

Victoria Sturm

[laughs] Sure.

NSR

Where can people see that movie?

Victoria Sturm

I think it was on Netflix? Being George Clooney – you have to google it, and I think you can buy it or rent it on any platform.

NSR

Cool. Excellent.

So what’s next for you? I imagine that work hasn’t really been affected too badly for you due to the pandemic.

Victoria Sturm

Yeah, it changed. Before and when the pandemic began. We did a lot of American things. And after that, we started to do Polish, Israeli and Scandinavian things we have never done before. I never dubbed a Polish show or movie or project from all over the world.

NSR

Excellent. So what’s next for you? What’s next in the pipeline?

Victoria Sturm

Next in the pipeline, I do the dubbing scripts for the new Kate Winslet show, Mare of Easttown. And after that, I direct and do the dubbing scripts of the new show from Jason Gordon-Levitt. And after that, I direct and do the dubbing scripts for the second season of The Walking Dead: World Beyond.

NSR

That’s a lot.

Victoria Sturm

And as a dubbing actor, I have the second or third season now from Prodigal Son. It’s a show I do and mixed-ish. It’s all the “ish” shows, mixed-ish, grown-ish, black-ish, we do.

NSR

Oh, excellent. Thank you so much for coming into the show and telling us a little bit about voice acting. That’s fantastic.

Victoria Sturm

Thank you for having me and excuse me for the grammar of my English.

NSR

Oh no, no, no. Don’t worry about that all. Don’t worry about that.

Have a wonderful 2021.

Victoria Sturm

Same to you.